Study: Podcast Listeners More Likely To Act On Ads Than TV Or YouTube Users.

Podcast advertising continues to stand out as one of the most effective drivers of consumer behavior, according to the third installment of “The Advertising Landscape” study from Sounds Profitable and Signal Hill Insights. The new report finds that podcast listeners — particularly “podcast primes” — take more follow-up actions after hearing an ad than users of any other ad-supported media, including YouTube, Instagram, television and streaming music.

The findings are based on a nationally representative survey of 5,005 U.S. adults conducted in January and February. All respondents consumed at least one type of ad-supported media, and the sample was weighted to U.S. census benchmarks. The study focuses on “podcast primes” — a group defined as those who consume ad-supported podcasts near daily and rank podcasts among their top four ad-supported platforms. These highly engaged users represent 23% of the total monthly podcast audience.

Among podcast primes, podcasts and social media platforms were nearly tied as the top channels where they encountered an ad that led to a purchase. Roughly one in four podcast primes (24%) — those who listen nearly daily and rank it as a top-four medium — cited podcasts as the origin of a recent effective ad, ahead of TV, online video, radio and streaming services.

Tom Webster, partner at Sounds Profitable, noted during a presentation of the results Wednesday that while podcast primes are more favorable toward podcasting, they are not exclusive to the medium. “They are predisposed to like podcasts, but not necessarily ads, and they’re getting ads in all of these other ad-supported media as well,” he said.

When podcast primes were asked to recall where they encountered an ad that led them to make a purchase, the top answers were podcasts and social media platforms — essentially tied. More importantly, the study shows that podcast ads prompt significantly more consumer action than other formats:

• Discussion: 28% of podcast primes discussed a product they heard about in a podcast ad — more than twice the rate for YouTube (13%) or Instagram (10%).

• Promo codes: 33% wrote down a promotional code from a podcast ad, compared to just 10% from YouTube ads.

• Search behavior: 27% searched for more information about a brand after hearing a podcast ad, far surpassing Instagram (13%) and YouTube (11%).

• Social media engagement: 26% visited a brand’s social media profile as a result of a podcast ad — the highest of any medium.

• Immediate purchases: 22% said a podcast ad directly led to a purchase, outpacing Instagram (13%), YouTube (12%) and all others.

Webster emphasized the practical importance of these findings. “Podcast primes did hear or encounter or see ads most likely on social media platforms or on podcasts,” he said. Asked what made podcast ads effective, podcast primes cited price sensitivity as the top factor, followed by personal needs and preferences, ad influence, and visual appeal. “Absolutely, prices and discounts are going to drive that effectiveness, but not overwhelmingly,” Webster said. 

In addition to past behaviors, the study also looked at future intent. Over the next three months, 77% of podcast primes expect to buy groceries, 71% plan to eat at a quick-service restaurant, and over half will spend on entertainment, travel or financial services — marking them as active consumers primed for brand engagement.

Still, Webster acknowledged that the success of podcast advertising depends on the industry’s ability to grow its footprint. “What do we need to do as an industry? We need to manufacture more podcast primes,” he said. “We should probably advertise. I don’t think we do that enough. I don’t think we’ve really introduced podcasting in any kind of a mainstream way. And I think part of it is the cadence of podcasting.” Webster said people might look at Facebook 20 times a day, but podcasting has yet to build that level of habit with consumers.

The full study was conducted in partnership with Signal Hill Insights and sponsored by BetterHelp, NPR, ESPN Podcasts, American Public Media and SiriusXM Podcast Network. The first chapter finds that 31% of U.S. adults consume ad-supported podcasts monthly. It was followed with a chapter that highlighted podcasting’s high trust, low ad-skipping rates, and strong gender parity.